Electoral Administration Bill

I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. I hope that my right hon. and learned Friend will not rush headlong into single signature registration. I trust that she will give the matter careful thought. If pilots are to take place, I make the specific request that there should be no priority until we have those 3 million to 4 million people back on the register. Without that there will not be true piloting. We are talking of the people who are most likely to stay off the register if there is a single signature system. I shall make some suggestions for consideration by my right hon. and learned Friend. I welcome her open approach, which means that she is prepared to consider views expressed by right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House, provided that they are reasoned and backed by statistical data. Having tabled dozens, if not hundreds, of written questions on electoral registration, it is obvious that not enough information is collected centrally by my right hon. and learned Friend’s Department. The Bill will go some way towards addressing that. Ministers do not know, for example, how much is spent by each local authority. I want to sing the praises of the National Assembly for Wales. I asked my Assembly colleague, Ann Jones, if she would ask her Minister how much was spent by each county in Wales per elector on registration, and I would ask mine how much was spent by each county in England. Her question was answered fully by the Assembly, but the response from my Minister was that the information was not collected centrally.